UMD Debate, Nationalism Versus Globalism, Exemplifies Needed Mindset Change

Thanks to my friend & colleague in liberty Gordon Cummings of Donors Trust for sending me the video of the recent debate on the subject of Nationalism versus Globalism held @ the University Of Maryland (UMD) between Nigel Farage, the architect of Brexit, & Vincente Fox, the former president of Mexico. 

 

Gordon said he "thought it might interest" me - but he knew it would. 

 

Gordon was most impressed, not with the topic or the debating skills of the participants, but that "civil discourse was held without anyone losing their minds, a rarity these days."

 

The debate was sponsored by the Steamboat Institute as part of their Campus Liberty nationwide tour of college campuses in partnership with the Ed Snider Center for Enterprise & Markets @ UMD.  The Steamboat Institute promotes America's first principles & inspires active involvement in the pursuit of liberty by hosting events around the U.S. through their fellowship program in the name of the great libertarian Tony Blankley.  ACTA helped sponsor the event.

 

For the record Nationalism (Farage) is a political, social, & economic system characterized by the promotion of the interests of a particular nation, especially with the aim of gaining & maintaining sovereignty over the homeland like President Trump is doing.  Globalism (Fox) is a group of ideologies that advocates the concept of globalization – the idea that events in one country cannot be separated from those in another & that economic & foreign policy should be planned in an international way as socialist George Soros advocates.

 

Prior to watching the subject debate my latest involvement with UMD had been in the spring of 2015 regarding the contentious on-campus showing of the film American Sniper & the Muslim Student Association's safety concerns & anti-Muslim complaints about the film being shown on campus.  I have never, even to this day, seen American Sniper but @ the time was just trying to make sense out of the event that received unfavorable national media attention @ UMD.  The media portrayed UMD as a politically correct but potentially dangerously wrong school – the University I love the most – that is undermining the very values I am personally trying to preserve.

 

My biggest concern is the poison of political correctness most prevalent on college campuses all across America but also that is infiltrating the whole of American life – up & down the very street you live on.  It is this political correctness that will be America's undoing & in the not too distant future @ the rate we are going.

 

Regarding the American Sniper episode my friend & Executive Director, Office of Gift Planning @ UMD, John McKee, presented me with the assurance that UMD "almost always falls on the side of free expression, and in fact UMD gets in trouble more often for NOT stopping a student group inviting an offensive speaker or hosting a controversial event." 

 

John sent me a copy of the message that UMD President Wallace Loh had sent him earlier that day in 2015 in which Dr. Loh explained that it was two student groups that worked out the solution to the problem - Student Entertainment Events Productions (SEE) & the Muslim Student Association – & that "Media sources then reported that UMD 'cancelled' the movie.  That UMD failed to uphold the basic right of freedom of expression. That UMD caved-in to a small number of students.  We were deluged by phone calls and messages from across the country, almost unanimously outraged by the cancellation or postponement.  Members of our faculty, staff, students and alumni, as well as members of our State's legislature, voiced their dismay with UMD's abridgment of this constitutional right" regarding "a film that can be viewed at theaters everywhere."  In short, UMD couldn't win.

 

Since the results of the 2015 on-campus showing & subsequent panel discussion of American Sniper @ UMD was somewhat controversial I left the matter in an unresolved status for myself – unresolved, that is, until I heard Dr. Loh's down-to-earth presentation in the video below prior to the subject debate in which there can be no question as to the man's dedication & quality to lead students of a major university. 

 

Dr. Loh's opening message in the video below is the same as the one he presented, after the fact when the students resolved the matter, in the written message in 2015 regarding American Sniper.  But this time Dr. Loh was able to directly take responsibility for authorizing the debate despite the letters & e-mails of outrage that he once again received that he was allowing the debate to proceed.  In short, the written message of three years ago got bigger to me after watching & listening to Dr. Loh in the video below.

 

Click on Nationalism – Globalism debate & go to the 02:40 mark to hear Dr. Loh's inspirational defense of free speech that explains that exceptional American nationalism is enlightened patriotism & civic nationalism based on freedom of expression, a free press, freedom of association, the right to worship who you want – i.e., a liberal democracy in a constitutional republic, a tolerant accepting democracy accepting of other people with whom you disagree.  Dr. Loh says that to be an American is a matter of the heart, a state of mind that drew him, a Latino – Asian, to this country to become a naturalized citizen. 

 

The conduct of both the audience & the participants during this debate exemplifies what he was talking about – a chance not just to change minds on a particular issue but for all concerned to have the chance to become enlightened – which requires a mindset where there is an expectation of civility & trust.  But Dr. Loh realizes, as do I all too well, that it has been a long time since higher education has been successful in training students "to become responsible citizens to live rightly in a free society."